


Isolation

by Rina_Calavera



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Death, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, I mean it's not super overt but that's definitely how it reads so, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Songfic, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide, hella references, references to skybound, technically
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:06:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 20
Words: 14,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26841868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rina_Calavera/pseuds/Rina_Calavera
Summary: He can't shake the grip of the Never Realm, and no matter how hard he tries he can't seem to get better.So Zane runs away.When the ninja arrive, they find a strange Echo of their teammate waiting for them - wielding a power he shouldn't have.
Relationships: Nya/Jay Walker
Comments: 8
Kudos: 44
Collections: The_Newbie's Ninjago Fanfic Collection





	1. Monster

_**It’s finally come** _

He didn’t stay long enough to see the aftermath. He couldn’t – he couldn’t take it. The minute time began again…he was racing away, trails of ice in his wake.

_**Come to knock down my door** _

He was – he was supposed to be better, he had been talking to Wu, he had been meditating, he was supposed to be back to normal again!

_**I can’t hide this time, like I hid before** _

He could go to the Birchwood forest – no. No that would be the first place they would look, and then he’d be back at square one and he might – 

_**The storm is awake; the danger is real** _

He couldn’t let them find him. He could never – he would never hurt them. Not now, not ever again.

_**My time’s running out** _

He could hear them at the door – he snatched his photo off of his nightstand, shoving it into his bag. It would have to be enough.

_**Don’t feel, don’t feel** _

He fought the tears welling up in his eyes. It was better this way – he couldn’t risk them. Today it was a criminal; tomorrow it could be Kai, or Jay, or even Lloyd…no.

_**Fear will be your enemy, and death its consequence** _

He couldn’t back down now. Clearly Vex was right – he was uncontrollable. It was only a matter of time before he did something worse.

_**That’s what they once said to me, and it’s starting to make sense** _

“Just you wait. I didn’t do this on my own. We did it, my emperor, together. You’ll get bored of their pathetic peace…and when you do, it will be glorious carnage.”

_**All this pain, all this fear began because of me –** _

He could still feel it, the fear that hung in the air around him thicker than any fog or mist.

_**Is the thing they see…the thing I have to be?** _

He caught his reflection in a stream. He didn’t wear his human hologram often before the Never Realm…now he rarely turned it off. He took a breath, and let the digital deception fall.

_**A monster. Were they right? Has the dark in me finally come to light?** _

Titanium cheeks. LED eyes. How could he have ever fooled himself into thinking he was like them? He was – he was just a machine. No…

_**Am I a monster…full of rage? Nowhere to go, but on a rampage…** _

No he was worse than a machine – machines didn’t feel this rage, this panic. He was neither man nor machine…

_**Or am I just a monster…in a cage.** _

He was a monster.

_**What do I do? No time for crying now** _

He finally stopped at Styxx. How far could he really get without the others finding him? No…no he had to get even farther. He took an unsteady step off of the dock – and set foot on solid ice. He could make it.

_**I started a storm, gotta stop it somehow** _

He could keep himself hidden away on the Dark Island – the others would never think to go there. They would assume him dead before they ever ventured across the sea.

_**Do I keep on running? How far do I have to go?** _

As his strides shortened and his fans screamed in his ears, he wondered if it would even work. Could the Dark Island hold him? Could it keep him at bay?

_**And will that take the storm away, or only make it grow?** _

What if it didn’t? What then – when his ice finally grew out of control, how long would Ninjago have? Would they have any time at all?

_**I’m making my world colder, how long can it survive?** _

Would they even be able to stop him?

_**Is everyone in danger as long as I’m alive?** _

He fell to his knees on a rocky shore. Was all of this enough? Or…or was it better to…

_**Was I a monster from the start? How did I end up with this frozen heart?** _

The tears from his journey fell freely now, thudding into the sand as ice drops. Questions swirled in his brain with each sob, each louder and more desperate than the last.

_**Bringing destruction to the stage; caught in a war that I never meant to wage…** _

Why him? Why didn’t the master of ice choose someone else? Why not choose an actual child, someone who couldn’t be so easily corrupted, so easily manipulated to the whims of people around him? It was only luck and Wu’s own morals that kept him in check before – what if Garmadon had found him first? Would Ninjago be under ice at this very moment, a frozen wasteland to rival the Never Realm’s tundra?

_**Do I kill the monster?** _

The tears stopped. His face hardened. He couldn’t be trusted.

_**…Father…you know what’s best for me.** _

He held the picture in his hands. Would he see him again? Did…did nindroids even go to the Departed Realm? He didn’t remember anything from the last time.

_**If I die…will they be free…?** _

Last time it hurt. He’d been torn in a million directions at once. Would this be different? Flipping a switch…maybe it would be like maintenance. Like drifting away…

_**Brothers…what if after I’m gone…** _

The others would be alright, right? It’s not like they would know…his eyes fell to where his teardrops sat in the sand.

_**The cold gets colder, and the storm rages on?** _

Frost spread from each one, creeping over his hands and into the shore.

_**No!** _

His blood ran cold. He clenched his hands in the sand and let out a desperate scream.

_**I have to stay alive to fix what I’ve done – save the world from myself, and bring back the sun!** _

He knew it had to be too simple. He couldn’t just be at peace – it would leave the world to ruin. He had to stay here, stay calm…keep his ice at bay. He rose to tired limbs and walked further into the island.

_**If I’m a monster, and it’s true, then there is one thing that’s left for me to do!** _

He stared up at the Temple of Light. It had fallen into disrepair in the years since they had last been here…but it could be a suitable containment. He took in a shaky breath. His hands clenched into fists; ice walls erupted high around the temple.

_**But before I fade to white, I’ll do all that I can to make things right** _

He could stay here. No one in their right mind would venture all the way out here – and the ice would ward off anyone who did. He curled in on himself, sequestered in a corner of the temple away from the beginning of a rainstorm.

_**I cannot be a monster.** _

He stared out through thin ice at the ocean’s angry waves. His own blue eyes stared back at him. Ice creeped up his arms.

_**I will not be a monster!** _

He clutched his clothes in his hands, breaking the ice into shards. He would stay here. The others would eventually give up. The world would be safe.

_**Not tonight!** _

And he would never hurt anyone else again.


	2. Survivor

He remembered the day Father left.

“I promise. I – someone will come back.” He had coughed and wheezed between words, too weak to manage much beyond simple words. “When I am better,” He’d cupped Echo’s sad face in his hands. “I will fetch you.”

He left that day. And Echo never saw him again.

The island wasn’t a horrible place to live. In all honesty, it was quite peaceful. Harmonious, even. He would rise every day, have tea with Tai-D – oil, in the little cleaning bot’s case – and watch the waves crash on the shoreline. The day would be spent exploring the island. 

His father’s inventive mind made for an inquisitive son, and to his dismay little was recorded about the flora and fauna of his home. He made it his work to document it all. He knew the island like his own circuitry –

Which was why it was so startling to find the temple encased in ice.

Echo was breathless as he took it in. The island was a very temperate place – frost was exceedingly rare, and ice even more so. This ice was beautiful, solid and sure, hiding a million nigh-imperceptible patterns within itself. He was utterly transfixed by it.

And then the falcon chirped at him.

It caught him off guard; had that bird been there when he’d arrived?

It too, was mesmerizing. He could barely make out gears and wires under its frosty feathers, each one paper thin and somehow surviving the island’s balmy temperatures. Fog wisped off of it in small tendrils with each movement. It looked him in the eye, wide amber irises meeting telescopic metal.

“What is this place, little friend?”

The bird tilted its head at him, then looked up to the temple’s top tower. Echo’s eyes widened in understanding. He climbed to the top, the ice never once budging beneath his hands. He slipped into the lone window and fell wordlessly to the golden floor below.

If the outside of the temple was beautiful, the inside was amazing. The frost and ice didn’t simply cover the tile and gold of the temple, it amplified them – somehow, the ice filtered light into a lens that brought the color out of each jewel and tile in dizzying vibrancy. Plain stone columns transformed into feathers and whorls of frost, the cold clear blue somehow making the entire building lighter than it ever was.

It left him completely awestruck.

“Who are you? You should not be here.”

The voice made him jump. He turned in an instant to see a tall figure step from the deeper parts of the temple. Echo could make out dirty white clothing, but only just – frosted snow and ice sat neatly on his shoulders, trailing to the floor behind him.

“I am Z – Echo. I was built to protect those who cannot protect themselves.”

The figure stared at him, a strange look in his blue eyes. “Built to…who built you?” He asked.

Echo cast his eyes downward. Even after all this time, it still sent pangs through his clockwork heart. “My father built me. He…he left, many years ago.”

The stranger nodded, the look replaced by another, sadder glance. “I am sure he did not mean to leave for so long.”

Echo mustered some resolve. “Who are you? I have lived on this island for many years, and I have never seen you – let alone seen the temple like this.” His voice lowered as he looked around more. “It is beautiful…”

The stranger smiled, but the look persisted in his eyes. “I am glad you think so.” He said. He looked around him. “I have forgotten how ice can be more than walls.” Echo had to strain to hear the rest. “More than a prison.” The strange look fled, replaced by wide eyes as he looked up at Echo. “You still see this as beautiful. You – you see more in it.”

Echo nodded with a smile. “I am sure you could see it as well.” He encouraged.

The stranger shook his head with a sad smile. “I am afraid that it is too late for me. But you…” He stepped towards Echo, and Echo took in his metal face streaked with ice and slurry marks. “Tell me, do you have a workshop? A place where your father would have made repairs?”

Echo nodded, confused.

Minutes later, he was connected to the lighthouse generator. “May I ask…what are you doing again?” Despite the stranger’s calm demeanor and gentleness with Tai-D, he couldn’t help the nervousness bubbling in his chest.

“I am correcting a mistake.” The stranger replied. He looked up at Echo with a smile. “And helping you.” Echo watched with wide eyes as the ice cloaking him fell away, leaving behind a metal chest. “We are more alike than you know – but I have an advantage you do not.” His chest opened seamlessly, bathing the room in bright blue. The stranger put a hand to his core. “My heart is advanced, but longevity is not the only secret it holds.” Echo shivered as hands methodically unhooked his heart, taking the clock out of his chest while the generator kept his fans on.

The stranger continued. “I did not live up to its promise.” He lifted it out of his own chest with a gasp. “But I believe you will.” The minute he connected the last wire, Echo’s eyes flashed blue. He sat up with a cry as the stranger fell.

“Wait!” He dove to the floor, scrabbling to collect the cords to the generator. “Why would you do that? You could – one moment, we can fix you,” A hand on his still-open chest gave him pause.

The stranger looked up at him with sad eyes, tears leaking down his cheeks. “You are a worthy successor, Echo.” He shuddered, and Echo heard his fans die down. “You can find them – and fill my place.”

“Please, how can I help you?” Echo was growing frantic. “I cannot just let you,”

“You can,” He whispered. “Please. For a little while – allow me to rest.” His eyes slid shut with a final sigh. “Just for a while…little brother.”

Once more, Echo was left alone.


	3. Successor

“Little brother…” Echo murmured. “He called me little brother.”

Tai-D whooped at him from his perch on the dinner table. Echo peered up at the little robot, his elbows propped on the table. “It really is him, then? It…he…” He chanced a look at where he’d laid the stranger. “It is Zane.”

His father had told him about his older brother, years ago. A mythical being in Echo’s eyes, a brave young man who had saved more of the world than Echo could ever hope to see.

Here he was, a legend come to life – collapsed without a power core in Echo’s own lighthouse.

Echo sighed, and scrambled back with a shout as sharp cold spilled over his arms. He looked up at Tai-D with wide eyes. “I – did you – did you see that?” 

Tai-D beeped at him in alarm.

Echo held up a hand, twisting it in the air. Crystals slowly creeped over it, only to retreat and melt at his surprise. “This…” He gripped his chest; below his panel, he could feel an unfamiliar thrumming. “Zane’s power core…” Something pricked at his eyes. “He gave me more than a power core.”

His brother’s words echoed in his mind.

“You are a worthy successor.”

Echo looked up at Tai-D again, determined. “We are leaving this island.” He said. His face fell as he looked at Zane. “I just…I need to take care of him.”

The sun was almost across the sky as he took his last look at his brother. “I promise, brother.” He murmured. “I will fetch you. Please, just wait for me.” He shouldered his small bag, smiling down at Tai-D peeking out of it.

“You ready?”

Tai-D whooped. Echo turned to where the Ninjago Sea stretched out before them. He stomped his left foot and breathed out a sigh when solid ice splintered from his footprint. He nodded to Tai-D, and the small robot settled into its pocket. Echo smiled nervously.

“We have a long way to go.”

~~~

Jay slammed a hand down on the console with a barely contained scream. “This is pointless!”

Cole jolted up from the table, drool on his face. “Wh – Zane?”

Nya shook her head with a comforting hand on his shoulder. “No, no Zane.” She made her way around the maps and markers to where Jay sat with his head in his hands. His usually unruly hair was tangled and gnarled in knots, and his clothes hung on an already slim frame.

The blue ninja didn’t acknowledge the hand on his back. “Jay, maybe you need to take a break.” Nya reached over to hit the console’s sleep button.

A hand stopped her wrist. “It’s okay, I,” Jay sniffed and looked up. “I’m good. I j-just,” he chewed on his lip and tears welled in his eyes. “I just needed a sec.”

Nya sighed and looked at Cole. The drool was wiped away, but his hair hung limply around his head. Unlike Jay’s, it wasn’t a tangled mess, but the normally vibrant hair looked thinner than it’d ever been. The black ninja looked up with sad eyes – despite the concerning overabundance of sleep, heavy bags hung under his eyes. Even his scar seemed to drag down his face.

The earth ninja heaved himself from his seat. “Jay,” he yawned. “Maybe you should let one of us take a turn. I haven’t,”

Jay snapped at him from the console. “I’m not letting you sit here just to fall asleep and miss him.”

“Jay!” Nya gasped.

“What?” The lightning master snapped. “It’s true. I’d rather s-sit here, c-crying over this s-stupid c-console,” Cole fumbled his way over while tears poured down Jay’s face. Jay leaned into the two, finally breaking down.

“You need to rest, buddy.” Cole murmured.

Jay protested. “I-I need to f-find Z-Zane,”

Nya shushed him. “Let us take a turn, okay?”

Jay finally relented, allowing Cole to stumble with him down the hall to his cabin. Nya took his place at the console, and double checked the scanner’s settings. She sighed, settling into place.

A stumbling crash made her jump to her feet. She huffed a moment later when Kai tripped his way into the control room, followed by an apologetic looking Lloyd.

“Hey sis,” Kai smiled. Nya’s eyebrows knit together at her brother’s appearance. Smeared blood betrayed a healing strike to his nose, while bruises around his eyes were slowly spreading into shades of blue and purple. “What’s up?”

Lloyd slid into a chair, meeting Nya’s eyes. “Found him at one of the slither pits again.” He explained. Nya’s frown deepened. The blond looked as exhausted as the rest of them.

Kai whined at being ratted out. “No fair…”

Nya shook her head. “Sorry you had to go find him, Lloyd.” She glared at Kai. “Go get cleaned up. You’re helping me man the scanner tonight.”

Kai groaned and rolled his eyes, but complied. Nya turned to Lloyd with a softer expression.

“You okay, Green Bean?”

He sighed, a long, sad thing. He looked up with tired eyes, and Nya winced at the dullness in them. “I’m always okay,” He said. “I’m just worried about Zane.”

Nya quietly set a hand on his shoulders. He was always too tense for his age. “We’ll find him,” she assured. “We found him in the Never Realm, we can find him here.”

Lloyd only nodded, a faraway look in his eyes.


	4. Learner

Echo coughed and spluttered as yet another wave roughly smacked him back onto the rocky shore. Tai-D indignantly beeped as he bailed water out of his hatch for what felt like the millionth time.

“I am sorry,” Echo panted. “I do not understand – I should be able to do this!” He punched the ground at his side. “He was able to get here without a raft or any help. I should be able to do the same.” Frustrated tears pricked at his eyes. “I should,” He huffed. “I should be able to do something.” He picked his hand up, shaking off ice crystals in annoyance.

Tai-D let out a low whoop.

Echo sighed. “You are right…the sun is almost down.” Yellow-rimmed eyes stared out at the sea. “I would be better off trying tomorrow.” He rose to his feet, dusting off his pants and wincing at the creaks from saltwater-logged joints.

The next morning saw little change. Each time Echo stepped out onto a shaky ice platform, he wobbled on it before a wave crashed over him, obliterating what little balance he had and shattering his foothold effortlessly.

He may have muttered some words his father found unsavory.

“Why is this so difficult?” He angrily cried. His – Zane’s, it was Zane’s core – core thrummed in his chest.

_Ninjago was not built in a day._

Echo paused with wide eyes. His father had been fond of the phrase – especially when he himself was impatient or frustrated with an elusive bird or reptile. It had been a long time since he’d thought about it, having settled into the patience needed for his cataloguing.

This called for an entirely new kind of patience.

_Ice can be more than walls._

Echo rose to his feet and turned away from the sea. Tai-D rolled after him, beeping in concern.

“I am not ready for the ocean yet, Tai-D.” He explained. “I need to practice – I need to know how this works.”

They came to a favorite spot of Echo’s, a clearing deep in the island jungle. He stopped, hands on his hips. “This will work nicely, do you agree?” He smiled down at Tai-D before picking him up and placing him on a particularly level rock he usually liked to use as a picnic table.

He walked to the middle of the clearing. “Be careful!” He called to Tai-D. “We do not know my range quite yet!”

He clapped his hands together.

He looked back at Tai-D.

He rocked on his heels.

Tai-D beeped at him from behind a rock.

Echo frowned. “I am getting ready!” He turned back from the robot. “Impatient bucket of bolts.” He muttered.

His core thrummed again.

_One step at a time._

“One step at a time…” He quietly repeated. “Right.”

He stretched out a hand, concentrating. Ice slowly crawled up his hand. “I want you…off.” He muttered aloud. He ran his other hand along his arm. The ice slowly followed, shifting and cracking over itself as it trailed behind his left hand. Echo grinned as he held out his left hand, a sloppy ball of ice hovering over it.

“Look Tai-D!”

An unimpressed whoop echoed around him. Echo turned back to his practice with an eyeroll. “As if you could do better.” He smiled brightly at his handiwork.

“Back to work then.”


	5. Navigator

Kai stared dully at the console.

It wasn’t showing anything.

It _hadn’t_ shown anything. And it wasn’t going to.

Zane was gone. He wasn’t coming back. And there was nothing any of them could do, because if there was they would have done it before he’d run off, or before he’d hurt that stupid thug, or – or they would have stopped him from getting zapped by that stupid staff in the first place.

But they didn’t. And they couldn’t. And now Zane was gone. G. O. N. E. Gone.

Kai drummed his fingers on the dashboard. He was only here because Lloyd ratted him out to Nya. He wasn’t hurting anything; he was just blowing off steam!

A twinge laced up his sore arm.

Okay; maybe he’d hurt a couple things. But no one that hadn’t signed up for it.

Nya was just in denial.

“Kai, can you at least pretend to pay attention? This scanner isn’t even on.”

Kai rolled his eyes. “I thought you set them all up.” He lazily raised a hand to flip on the scanner in question.

Nya pursed her lips. “They need to be cycled in line with the Bounty’s position – that one’s out in the Ninjago sea, we just got in range.”

Kai sighed and turned from the console. “Why can’t we just let it go? Why keep dragging this out?” He waved a bandaged hand aimlessly in the air. “Why can’t you just let us heal?”

Nya huffed. “Just shush and watch the scanner, Kai.”

“You know I’m right,”

Nya pushed him over. Kai yelled in protest, waved off by an absent hand.

Kai jumped to his feet. “Excuse me!”

“Kai! Would you just,” Nya shoved his face at the scanner. “What does that say?”

Kai rolled his eyes. “It says nothing, because that’s what it’s been saying this whole time, and it’s what it’ll keep saying until I finally lose my mind at all this…nonsense…” His words trailed off at the readout onscreen.

“That,”

Nya nodded, tears welling up. “That’s his energy signature.”

Kai stared at her wide eyed. “We found him.”

“We found him!”

~~~

Echo flopped onto his back, desperately panting to help air out his overworked system. A glance behind him showed Tai-D’s sleep mode light blinking off.

“You stopped watching me?” He laughed and trailed off with a sigh. “And right when I finally got it…” He smiled wistfully at the robot. “Silly helper bot.”

All around him sat piles and shards of melting ice and snow. His arms and legs were sore, and he was still gasping in air, but it felt right. He slowly dragged up to a sitting position, holding a hand out in front of him. A perfect diamond crystal formed in his palm.

Echo grinned. “I told you I could learn.”

A rumble overhead replaced the grin with a serious look. It reverberated in his chest, and his core thrummed in answer.

Newcomers. They cannot find the temple.

A cold wave of concern washed over him.

Echo spared a glance at the center of the island where Zane’s temple stood, the tower barely glittering over the trees. He turned to Tai-D, the little robot now awake and beeping insistently.

“We need to protect him.”

Echo grabbed the bot, racing away on a track of ice.


	6. Invader

Cole stood on deck, arms crossed. He turned at the sound of footsteps.

“Why would he come to the dark island?” he asked.

Kai looked down at the growing shoreline. “You know him better than any of us.” He replied. “Look at it,” he held a hand out. “No one for miles. No one to bother him, no one to find him before he’s ready,”

Cole stared out at the thick jungle as the Bounty settled into the waves. “No one to accidentally hurt.”

Kai nodded as he absently rubbed his sore arm. Zane had looked positively sick when he’d realized what he had almost done. There was no lasting damage (physically, at least – Kai would have serious issues had he been in that guy’s place) but the nindroid had clearly come crashing down on himself for it.

He’d run off as quickly as he’d seen it.

And Kai hadn’t chased after him. One of his best friends in the world – and he’d just let him run away. A guy with a history of being way too hard on himself ran off right in front of Kai, and he just let him do that.

He rolled his shoulders. It didn’t matter – they had tracked him here, the signal was getting stronger by the minute – they’d find him, smack some sense and self-care into the stupid nindroid, and go home.

They’d pile into the living quarters, watch a stupid movie about friendship and explosions, and drink Zane’s best hot chocolate.

Easy as pie.

They landed on the beach roughly. Jay’s eyes darted up and down the shore, and he kept a firm hand in Nya’s as they trekked. Nya herself took the lead, scanner in her other hand. Cole trudged along silently behind her, trailed by Kai.

Lloyd brought up the rear, Pixal’s concerned voice crackling in all of their ears.

“ETA, sis?” Kai called. He hated being on the Dark Island – it drove anxious chills up his spine.

Nya paused and wacked the scanner. “It’s having a hard time pinpointing Zane,” she frowned. “It could be the dark energy lingering here.”

Kai furrowed his eyebrows. “Dark energy?”

Jay’s voice was quiet as he answered. “There’s still a little here – nothing horrible, but it can mess with energy readings.”

Kai’s hands curled into fists. “If he isn’t here, I swear,”

“He’s here!” Jay backtracked. “His energy signature is strong, he’s clearly here – it just keeps jumping around, that’s all.”

Kai huffed.

“He’d better be.”

~~~

Echo stared down at the strangers with wide eyes.

They should have been strangers.

But the shine in the girl’s hair, the tension in the boy’s shoulder – they screamed at him, made his heart thrum and race in his chest.

_Run. Run away, do not let them find you._

He shrunk back onto his branch. He held Tai-D close – the little robot was silent for once. “What do we do?” He asked, thinking out loud more than addressing the helper bot. “What if they chased him here?”

Despite his typically calm demeanor, his heart raced. 

It practically spun in his chest, wholly unlike his old clockwork model. It made his spine run cold, made him gasp in air. He clutched Tai-D to his chest. 

Was something wrong? Humans could reject organs, was he rejecting a new core? Was he going to fall out of this tree? Fall right onto those familiar strangers, right into their hands? The red one looked angry, the black one powerful. What if they hurt him? What if they were angry? If they blamed him? What if they found Zane and saw him and saw the ice in his hands and decided to, to – 

His heart hummed.

_Ground yourself; worry about that which you can control. What is real?_

He shook his head and drew his knees in closer. He couldn’t find it. He didn’t know. His chest hurt.

_Yes, you can. Breathe in, breathe out. Count them out._

He sucked in a breath, letting it whistle out slowly. He needed to keep a level head – he couldn’t let them find Zane.

_Keep along. Keep breathing._


	7. Protector

He took in a shaky breath. They had mentioned looking for Zane. His pained smile flashed in his eyes. His older brother had looked so tired, so in need of rest. He looked like the world was sitting on his shoulders.

“Let me rest awhile.”

“He just wanted to rest.” Echo whispered. He chanced another look at the group below him. He turned to Tai-D. “Let us make sure he gets it.”

Tai-D whooped, and Echo smiled.

“Time for some practical application.”

He slid down a vine, leaving a trail of frost in his wake.

~~~

A prickle crawled up Cole’s spine, stopping him short.

“What’s wrong? What’s the holdup?” Kai asked.

Cole searched the thick jungle. “I,” he narrowed his eyes. “Something’s watching us. I can feel it.”

Jay pulled a face. “Why do you have to say things like that?”

Cole frowned at the blue ninja. “I can’t brush off the feeling.” He peered into the thick foliage around them. Leaves and vines stared back, along with…something else… “We’re not alone here.”

Sparks crackled around Kai’s hands. “I dare anyone to get in our way.” He growled.

All four ninja silently stared at the smoking teen.

“We have got to get you some therapy, Kai.” Lloyd blanched. “But in all seriousness…are you sure Cole?” He turned to the tallest of their group. “It could be the leftover dark energy messing with your head.”

Cole felt a flare of anger at the accusation. “I’m not making this up, Lloyd.” He snapped.

The green ninja held up his hands in surrender. “Okay! I believe you. We’ll just have to keep on our toes.” He gave them all a concerned look. “And stay together, okay? We can’t help Zane if we get separated.”

Cole nodded with the rest of the team. Nya cursed and smacked the scanner again.

“I really hope he’s just moving around aimlessly, because this is starting to get annoying.” Jay took the scanner in concern, turning it over and adjusting the knobs.

He looked up at the group. “I think we’ll all feel a lot better about this once we find him.”

Cole rolled his shoulders, the prickle as insistent as ever. “Let’s just find Zane and get out of here.” He grumbled.

“Agreed.” Kai growled.

The group shuffled on.

~~~

Echo stared at the little scanner in the girl’s hands. It seemed to be on the fritz, thank goodness. He would take any help he could get at this point. He took in a deep breath.

“You ready, Tai-D?”

The robot chirped.

Echo smiled. “Time to go!”

He set the robot on the jungle floor before climbing up in the tree next to him. Tai-D whooped from the ground. Echo frantically waved his arm at him.

The little robot blinked its lights.

“Go! You agreed!” Echo hissed.

Tai-D angrily buzzed.

“Yes, it is humiliating, now do it!”

Tai-D let out a final beep and rolled off to where the strangers trudged through the jungle. It turned to Echo just out of sight of them. The nindroid waved his hand in a “go on” motion.

Tai-D rolled in front of the strangers. It beeped at them once, before turning to Echo and turning itself over unceremoniously.

Echo smiled as it drew the strangers’ attention. “Good little helper bot,” he whispered. “Just keep on, and keep them busy.” He climbed further up the tree. “I need to keep them away from him.”

In the canopy, he turned to the temple.

_All strength comes from firm foundations._

Echo nodded to himself, and carefully raised his hands. Ice flew from his palms, swirling in the wind and building off of itself. Soon, a wall formed around the temple, strong and tall.

Echo panted with the effort.

_A job worth doing is a job worth doing well._

Right. Finish the job.

A dome soon stretched over the temple and the surrounding jungle. Echo leaned back against the tree to catch his breath.

_Well done._ He smiled. Now onto the intruders themselves.


	8. Saboteur

“Aww, hello again!” Jay knelt down to welcome the familiar bot. “What are you doing way out here?”

His question abruptly cut off as Tai-D fell over with a clunk.

“Tai-D!” He scooped up the little bot with a concerned look.

Nya looked at him with an equal amount of concern. “What’s wrong with him?”

Jay turned over the bot in his hands. “I’m not sure – he may be old, but Dr. Julien didn’t exactly have a reputation of building faulty or easily broken machines.”

Cole peered over Jay’s shoulder. “He shouldn’t have gone this far from the lighthouse. Maybe…”

They all looked up as he finished his thought.

“Maybe he’s out here because of Zane.”

Kai’s face split into a grin. “Maybe he can take us to him! Jay,” he clapped a hand on the ninja’s shoulder. “Fix him up, and let’s find him. It’s gotta be faster than that scanner.”

Jay folded his legs under him and pulled a toolkit from a pocket on his gi. “I’ll get you taken care of in a jiffy,” he assured Tai-D. He looked up at the rest of the group. “Wanna set up a base? This might take a bit.”

The group agreed, settling down while Jay set to work on Tai-D. Lloyd flopped beside him to sprawl on his back.

“You okay, Green Bean?”

Jay kept his eyes on his work.

Lloyd sighed.

“Why did he come here, Jay?”

“Tai-D?” Jay set a small baggie of screws next to him. “Either he followed Zane, or he followed us. Robots get lonely too you know.”

Lloyd laughed. “Not Tai-D, Jay.” His smile fell. “Zane.”

The green ninja continued as Jay worked. “This isn’t like when Cole goes climbing, or when Nya chills in the X-Cave with Pixal. He…he was scared.”

Jay tsked and grabbed a cloth from his pack. “He was scared. He doesn’t want a repeat of the Never Realm – however impossible that is.”

Lloyd stared up at the clear sky. “Is it really that impossible?” He asked. “Zane knows himself better than anyone. What if…what if he was right to be scared? And we just…didn’t listen to him?”

“So? That doesn’t mean we just leave him here.” Lloyd looked up in surprise at Cole’s voice.

“That’s not what I was suggesting, I just,”

Cole looked angry. “He may think that low of himself, but I don’t. And you better not either.”

Lloyd sat up. “Cole, I’m not saying that!”

The earth ninja held his look for a long moment. “Let’s just find Zane. The sooner we find him, the sooner we can help him.”

~~~

They’d been trekking through the jungle for another hour, a stubbornly unresponsive Tai-D in tow, when Kai slipped.

“Y’know, it’s times like these that I remember your slither pit stint,” Lloyd said, helping him to his feet. “I’m not sure whether to be impressed or horrified by that string of words.”

Kai grumbled, rubbing a now very sore elbow. “What did I slip on?”

Cole stared at the ground with growing excitement. “It’s ice!” He looked up with a smile. “It’s solid ice, we’re getting closer!” Happy exclamations echoed around the group at the realization. Even Kai’s mood picked up at the idea.

In the tree above them, Echo facepalmed. “It was not meant to drive you closer to him!” He hissed. He glared down at the ninja. They were surprisingly tenacious, and if it weren’t for his brother’s pleading face still stark in his memory, he might let them be. They seemed to care for Zane, but…but he’d looked so tired.

Echo clenched his jaw. There had to be something he could do. They couldn’t just follow the ice forever…

He blinked.

_There is more than one path to a destination._

Maybe they could. Echo flexed his hands.

If they wanted to follow the ice, he’d give them a path. They would go wherever he wanted them, and they’d stay far, far away from Zane.

He took in a deep breath.

He’d just need to keep up the stamina required to outlast them.


	9. Imposter

Echo huffed and sprawled on a sturdy branch. It had been the better part of the day now, and he was no closer to getting these people off of his island and away from Zane.

He carefully shuffled to his back as their bickering floated up to him. He groaned with palms pressed to his eyes.

“Why will you not _leave?_ ” He asked aloud.

The voices stopped.

_Oh dear._

Echo clapped a hand over his mouth, eyes wide.

“Is someone up there? Zane? Is that you?”

Maybe if he’s quiet they’ll move on.

“I swear I’ll torch it if he’s up there and ignoring us.”

Maybe not.

He could hear Lloyd admonishing Kai before addressing him again. “Please, we’re just looking for our friend – and we could use some help if you know this place. We don’t want any trouble.”

Echo sighed.

_The best way to defeat your enemy is to turn him into your friend._

He blinked at the unfamiliar words. He was certain his father had never quite said that before.

A sudden jolt to his tree had him scrambling to regain his balance.

“Cole!”

“No! For once, I’m with Hothead! We need answers, and I’m not waiting for them to finish laughing at us!”

Another rough tremor ran up the tree, dislodging Echo from his perch and sending him into the brush below.

He stared up at the shocked faces above him.

“I want to make clear that I was not laughing at you.”

~~~

“Zane?”

Lloyd blinked at the coppery bronze figure in front of them. He’d fallen out of the tree after Cole had punched it, falling to the ground with a painful sound of ringing metal.

He raised his hands palms up. “I am not Zane.” Lloyd scrutinized him carefully. Yellow lit eyes flicked between the five of them. Unlike Zane, he was made of a shiny brass-colored metal. A blue glow lit his face from below, drawing Lloyd’s eyes to his chest.

A blue power core.

A familiar blue power core.

“Dr. Julien built you, didn’t he?” The nindroid blinked up at them in surprise. 

“You know my father?” Something flickered in his eyes, a familiar ache that struck Lloyd in his soul. “Did he send you for me?”

Oh. A part of Lloyd winced at the question, the still-small hidden piece of him that remembered being six and being left behind and knowing that someone would be back any day. He met hopeful yellow eyes. “I’m sorry,” He murmured. “I…Dr. Julien, he…”

Kai surprised him when he knelt to the ground, pulling the nindroid up to a sitting position and putting a hand on his shoulder. “Dr. Julien, um, he,” Lloyd could hear the hesitation in Kai’s voice. “He got sick, and he passed not long after reaching the mainland.” Kai’s eyes fell to the ground. “I’m sorry.”

The nindroid blinked rapidly at them.

“What?”

And that voice…oh that voice. Lloyd knew that voice. It was small, and timid, and mismatched with the grown face it came out of. It was the voice of a kid whose dad wasn’t coming home, and it wasn’t some selfish choice but instead an irreversible fact of life. It was a voice that knew you weren’t lying but hoped and prayed that you were, because if you were telling the truth it meant life was never going to be the same again.

It was a voice that didn’t know how to process the hurt it felt, and so all it could do was ask “what”.

“Are you okay?” Cole’s voice was gentle.

The nindroid made a soft noise, like he couldn’t pick what to say first. Lloyd opened his mouth to offer help, when that small voice spoke again.

“He said someone would come for me.” Lloyd watched as artificial tears slowly welled up in his eyes. “H-he said he would introduce me to, to my,” He suddenly cut off with a strange look. He looked up at them with determined eyes. “Why are you here? Why have you come to the island?”

Lloyd eyed him carefully. “We’re looking for someone. For a friend.”

The nindroid shook his head. “I am the only being living here – aside from Tai-D.”

“I don’t think you’re alone here,” Lloyd shook his head. “We’ve seen the ice, we know it came from our friend.”

“O-oh, the ice?” He held up his hand. “I made the ice.”

Lloyd’s eyes widened as startled gasps erupted around them.


	10. Liar

Jay’s hand was like a vice around Nya’s.

She was sure hers wasn’t much better.

It was hard enough being without Zane for so long; when they’d tracked his energy source to the island, she’d just breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn’t in the lighthouse. Regardless of if he’d found Echo before they’d arrived…she didn’t know if she could handle setting foot there again.

The last thing she’d expected was for Echo to fall out of the trees above them and practically into their laps.

Seeing him was like being dunked in a bucket of ice-cold water. Every repressed memory, every ghost of an injury that never happened – it all came rushing back with biting clarity.

And it had Jay shaking like a leaf.

“It’s him.” He breathed. “We really left him.”

Nya pulled him away from the others under the guise of fixing the scanner.

She sat him on a rock and sunk down next to him. “We’re okay, we’re good.” She ran her thumb over his hand.

“We left him.”

Nya pointedly glared at her feet. “No, we tried to move on with our lives. We didn’t have any reason to know about him. He has no reason to know us.”

Jay’s hand somehow tightened around hers. “He said he wasn’t Zane. He calls himself something different.”

It was something she’d tried to rationalize. Maybe he was called something different in this timeline. Maybe he made himself a new name.

She knew she was lying to herself.

“They don’t know.”

“Zane should have known. We should have told him.”

Nya set her jaw. “Well, we didn’t.” She smacked the scanner. “So as far as they know, we’ve never seen him before in our lives.”

Jay quietly took it from her hands. “I don’t know if I can fake that.” He fiddled with the settings, clearing the static from the screen for the time being. “We should have told him. Told all of them.”

Nya was quiet.

“I know.”

He handed it back to her. “We’re going to have to tell them.”

She sucked in a quiet breath. “I know.”

It was her turn to grip his hand as they stood up. “So what do we say?” She asked. “Hey, big brother who’s literally risked his life for me, I died in another timeline and there’s nothing you could have done about it?”

Jay met her eyes. “I,” He stuttered. “I don’t really know. I mean,” He sighed. “Hey, guys, I nearly got us all condemned to an eternal hell inside a djinn sword.” He mocked himself.

“At any rate,” Nya looked up at where voices were starting to rise. “I think he’s accidentally pissed off Kai.”

Jay looked over to where Kai and Lloyd were sitting next to Echo. Kai’s face had twisted into a fierce glare and he looked ready to explode. Cole didn’t look much better.

He winced. “We better go help him.”

“You ready?” Nya asked.

“No.”

She nodded. “Me neither.”


	11. Traitor

“You better start talking now!” Kai’s demeanor flipped in a second, his hand going from a comforting spot on the nindroid’s shoulder to a harsh grip on his arm.

“It is true!” The nindroid yelped. “Look!” He shakily held up a metallic hand, and Cole watched with narrowed eyes as an ice crystal formed.

It built up in his hand, lighter and more organic than Zane’s precise geometric ice structures. It was beautiful…but it was wrong. This was Zane’s element – to see it from another was unsettling. “How are you doing that?” Cole growled. The nindroid stared up at him with worried eyes. “That’s an elemental power, one that belongs to someone else, how are you doing that?!”

The nindroid recoiled. “I-I do not know.” His eyes darted to the ground. “I did not know I could until recently.”

Kai looked livid. “I think you do, and you better tell me how right now!”

Lloyd finally blinked away the shock and stepped forward. “Let’s not jump to conclusions, guys. After all, Krux and Acronix both held the element of time” He helped the nindroid to his feet, avoiding Kai and Cole’s glares. “Who’s to say Zane couldn’t have shared an element too?”

Cole gave a skeptical hum. “Krux and Acronix were twins. Zane never mentioned a brother.”

“I never met my older brother.” The nindroid said. “Father,” His voice hitched on the word. “Father said I would, one day, but that was before he left.”

Lloyd gave him a smile. “Well, maybe we can introduce you to Zane instead. After all, he’d be thrilled to meet you, uh,” Lloyd blanked. “What can we call you?”

The nindroid gave him a soft smile. “My father called me Zane.” He couldn’t help but laugh at the confused faces around him. “Which would be confusing, I know. You may call me Echo.”

Jay made a strangled noise behind them.

Lloyd turned to him. “You okay Jay?”

“I know you.”

Lloyd turned back to Echo. “What?”

His face was scrunched as he looked at Jay and Nya. “I know you.”

“No,” Lloyd shook his head. “That’s ridiculous,” He gestured to the two ninjas. “Jay and Nya would have told us, brought you home. They wouldn’t just leave you out here on your own,”

Echo’s eyes opened wide. “No, I do know you.” He looked strained. “I – there was a fight. You – you came into the lighthouse. You,” He clutched a hand to his chest. “You gave me my name.”

Lloyd looked at Jay, expecting a confused denial.

He guiltily looked at Echo before his gaze dropped to the ground.

Lloyd’s face dropped in shock. “Jay?” He looked to Nya. “What’s he talking about? What do you mean?”

Nya’s face was stony. He hadn’t seen that look since…since the guys had gone to the first realm.

“What happened?” He asked.

Nya set her jaw and held Jay’s hand tightly. “We…we have something we need to tell you. But first,” She looked at Echo. “We’re so sorry, Echo.”


	12. Deserter

“You…you remembered?” Echo was breathless. “You knew?”

The boy – Jay, his name was Jay – had the decency to look guilty. “We…we didn’t know how to bring it up.”

Echo stared at him. “Bring it up?” Months – years – of being alone and being unknown played behind his eyes. The first lonely sunrise without his father. The day he realized it had been nearly a month. The day the radio sparked on itself, burned out beyond repair. The day Tai-D heard him sobbing, and finally powered on and rolled out to comfort him. “I,” He stammered, at a loss for words. “What about me? Did you,” His breathing picked up. “Did you not know how, how to bring me up?”

Nya reached out a hand to him. “Echo, we shouldn’t have left you here alone, but,” He jerked out of her reach.

“You…” he trailed off.

He crumpled to the ground.

He was gasping now.

“You did know,” He whispered. “You knew, and you left me alone here.”

A hand grabbed his shoulder. “We’re sorry,” Echo smacked it away and leapt to his feet.

“No wonder he was so tired,” He sobbed. “You must have noticed, must have seen it,” He gasped in air to try and aid his rapidly heating system. “And you did not care,”

Cole’s voice sounded strangled. “Echo, who are you talking about?”

He took a step backwards from them. He should never have followed them, he should have hidden Zane in the lighthouse and gone into sleep mode until they were gone.

Lloyd stepped towards him. “Echo, wait, we can help you,”

Echo took another step back. “Do not touch me,” He breathed. “You,” He glanced wildly between the five figures in front of him. “We were,” He felt confusion bubbling in his chest. “ _I needed help,_ ”

“Echo,” Lloyd’s voice had taken on a serious edge. “You need to calm down, you’re frying your system,”

His vision blurred with tears. “You could have helped me. Helped him – us. You,” He looked up with tired eyes. “ _You could have saved us._ ”

Lloyd’s eyes widened. “Wait, Echo, hold on,”

A pain flashed from his chest up to his head. Echo screeched and clutched his head in his hands. “Stop it!” He cried. The pain whistled through his entire system, intense and blinding white.

_Get away run we need to run!_

Echo stumbled on uneasy feet; he backed away from Lloyd and into a tree.

“Echo, please, let us help you now,” Lloyd’s voice sounded pleading, desperate.

_No, they cannot help me,_

Echo choked out the words. He glanced up at Lloyd. Something flashed across his eyes, but Echo turned to run before he could think about it. He needed to get out of here, needed to get away from them –

_We need to RUN!_

“We need to get away,” He panted, blindly racing through the jungle. “We,” He stammered, “I,” he shook his head. “I cannot – I am, me, you, I,”

He collapsed on an ice-covered floor mosaic.


	13. Brother

He shook on the icy floor beneath him.

“W-what is hap-pening to m-me?” He choked out garbled words, his system whirring and clicking frantically in his ears. He gasped in air in a desperate attempt to cool his overheating system.

_It is too hot – we cannot – I – you_

Echo screeched and clenched his head in his hands. “S-stop t-talk-king!” He cried. His head was throbbing with loud thrumming, his heart felt like it was going to pulse out of his chest –

And then it stopped. He lay curled on his side with his hands clamped around his ears; he panted into the chilled air of the temple.

“What,” he breathed. “What happened?” He asked out loud.

_I do not know._

He rolled to his back with a groan. “Something, something went wrong,” he clutched a hand to his chest.

He unsteadily rose to his feet. He somehow kept even footing on the slippery floor below him, cool mist wavering from where his heart hummed beneath his hand. “My head,” He winced and stumbled.

He reached the center of the room, and kneeled next to the fixture in the center. “This,” He leaned over it. “You did not expect this, did you?”

_I admit,_

Echo froze.

_I did not expect this._

He brought a shaky hand to his forehead.

_I apologize; I did not count on us sharing a heart, or a processor._

“Y-you really,” Echo murmured. “Is it you?”

_I feel like me. In fact, I feel more like myself than I have in, in a very long time._

Echo trembled at the now clear voice ringing in his head.

“Z-zane?”

_I suppose we should officially meet, little brother._

~~~

“He ran off,” Lloyd said. His hand reached off where Echo had dashed away. “We need to find him.”

“Yeah we need to find him!” Kai seethed. “He knows something about Zane, you saw him!”

Lloyd looked up in alarm. “Kai, didn’t you see him? He needs help!”

Cole’s voice hushed them both. “He’s in shock.”

Lloyd met his mismatched eyes. Cole looked deep in thought, a familiar crease in his forehead. Lloyd had seen that crease, when Cole had returned to the Bounty with an infant in his arms, and again when he had to say goodbye to that giant monster from the Never Realm. He nodded in agreement. “He needs our help,” He repeated. “He’s confused – it looked like he had some memory of what you two told us.”

Jay stared at his feet, while Nya held her arms close to her body. Lloyd couldn’t help the hurt that leeched into his voice. “Why didn’t you tell us?” He asked quietly. “We would have believed you.”

Nya sighed, while Jay sucked in a breath. She looked up at the three boys. “We just…it felt like we were back on mission so fast, with the time twins, and then Wu was gone,” She shook her head. “It was just one thing after another. And then…then we could finally rest, and it was so nice,” She squeezed her eyes shut. “We didn’t want to ruin it.”


	14. Failure

Echo stood on shaking legs. “It really is you, is it not?” He asked with a raspy voice.

Now, with the acknowledgement of Zane’s presence, it’s as if his voice is louder, clearer in his mind. A chuckle sounds in the back of his head. _It is._ He assured. _It is nice to meet you under better circumstances._

The younger nindroid shook his head. “B-better circumstances?” He echoed in disbelief. “You,” He stared at where he’d laid his brother. “You left before I could even begin to know you.”

 _You know me,_ Zane urged. _You know me – a better me – better than I deserve for you to know._

“You keep saying that!” Echo snapped. “You keep saying, keep insisting – more than or less than you deserve!” He paced across the tile. “What did you do that was so horrible? Who were you, that you, that,” He turned again to the icy form in the center of the table; a hand drifted to his chest, where still-unfamiliar blue pulsed frantically. “That you would just…”

 _I…_ Zane’s voice was subdued. _I lived a long life. I was…tired._

Echo stomped his foot, and a plume of snow flashed from the ground. “But why me?” He asked. “Why – if you were tired, why not just – just leave? Just,” He shook his head in disbelief. “Just rest on your own.”

_Ninjago needs a master of ice._

“So why abandon it?” Echo knew he sounded like a petulant child. He knew he sounded ungrateful. He didn’t care. “You did not come here expecting to find me! You ran away!”

 _I could not abandon it,_ Zane admitted. _I knew I could not. I was…scared. I did not trust myself. So when I found you…_

Echo caught his reflection in the floor.

_When I found you, it was destiny._

Echo gaped at the blue flash in his eyes. “Destiny?” He asked. “Destiny!?” He could feel Zane recoil in his head. “You,” He stuttered, running an incredulous hand through his hair. “How could you know? How could you possibly think this was the right decision?”

 _Because you are you._ Zane’s gentle voice murmured. _I was once very similar to you. I protected those who could not protect themselves. I had faith in my decisions; in my actions._

“What happened? What changed?” Echo asked numbly. He could feel Zane’s heavy shame leeching into his own anxiety.

_I fell._

He felt a cold wave wash over him at the words. Memories – places and people he’d never seen before – flashed in his mind’s eye.

_I did horrible things, little brother. I failed our purpose. I failed Ninjago._

Echo wordlessly shook his head. It couldn’t be true; could it? He had to be mistaken, it had to be an anecdote, a lesson, a trick – he couldn’t have done…all of this…he couldn’t have…

_I failed our father._

Echo sank to his knees wordlessly.

I could not trust myself to continue.


	15. Tracker

“I can’t pick up the trail!” Kai huffed in frustration, kicking up a pile of leaves. “I have no idea where he went.”

They’d been walking for hours now; in all honesty, he’d lost the trail not long after they’d started. No one had the energy or the want to admit that they’d lost the nindroid completely.

Lloyd furrowed his brow at the thought. The Dark Island was vast, a mirror to Ninjago. Echo could easily avoid them for days, especially given his knowledge of the terrain. Longer, if he was mobile and careful.

But there was the fact that he was clearly disturbed right now…and if he was anything like Zane…

“What if we checked the temple?” He asked. Surprised faces met the suggestion. “Think about it,” he urged. “He knows we know about the lighthouse; he has to! He can’t go back there, it’s a surefire way to run into us again.”

Cole shook his head. “Lloyd, why would he know about the temple? Or even know what it is?”

Lloyd confidently shook his head. “He doesn’t have to know it’s important to know about it.” He waved his hands around him. “Look at this place! It’s all jungle and animals and who knows what poisonous and venomous things!”

Kai blanched. “Thanks for that image.”

“My point is, the Temple of Light is secure! It’s a haven from everything out here – one that doesn’t involve having to double back for the lighthouse.” Lloyd looked between the four tired faces in front of him. “Echo is a nindroid, not some crazy ghost.” He ignored the dry looks from that comment. “He needs a place to rest – and we’re a lot closer to the temple than we are to the shoreline.”

Nya slowly nodded in tired agreement. “We don’t have much more of a choice,” she said. “It’s not like anyone else has any ideas. Unless someone wants to take point?” She challenged.

Kai huffed. “It’s better than tripping over trees forever.” He gave another halfhearted kick to the undergrowth. “I’m going to start burning it if I trip over one more root.”

Lloyd looked at Jay for confirmation. The blue ninja sighed with a troubled look. Echo’s hurt face was still very clear in everyone’s mind. “It’s our best shot,” he agreed. “You still remember the way, buddy?”

Lloyd studied the surrounding jungle. It was a maze unto itself, but some things stood out – the sound of waves on the shore behind them, an uphill climb to a mountain ahead. He gave a curt nod and stepped forward. “It was the longest trek of my life. I could never forget that.”

His mind wandered back to that first climb.

He’d barely gotten used to his longer limbs, his taller form.

He was sick to his stomach; every step brought him closer and closer to fighting his dad.

He still heard the bell ringing in his ears at night.

His eyes widened at the icy fortress the temple had become.


	16. Rager

Someone is outside.

“The others,” Echo breathed. Anxiety welled in his chest. “I tried to lead them away, I tried to keep them from coming here,” he couldn’t help the glance at the form behind him. “I have to get them out of here, I cannot let them,” He was shaking now. “If they see,”

_Shhh, little brother._

Zane’s voice gently rang in his head.

_My brothers are not evil; they likely intend to help you._

Echo shook his head. “If they see –“

_Do not let them in; if they are able to help you, then they will not waste energy here._

The younger nindroid shakily nodded and rose to his feet.

“Okay,” he muttered. “Okay – just, just need to,” he paced nervously. The faces of the girl and boy from before flashed in his mind. “I cannot do it, I,” he shook his head roughly. “They,” his breathing was picking up again. “They left me, I,”

_You are getting too worked up, wait –_

He ignored the voice echoing in his brain. “I do not want to be left again,” his voice was shaking.

_Brother –_

“No,”

His pacing picked up speed.

 _“We will not be abandoned again!”_ He shrieked. _“They will not leave us, they cannot!”_

The ice structure around him screeched with its master’s anguish. Ice swirled angrily around his ankles, and snow whipped through the room, an instant blizzard of his own making.

~~~

The chill was instant.

The minute Lloyd touched the massive doors to the temple, a harsh wind exploded outward, snapping at their faces and chilling them to their cores. It made his eyes water and his ears burn, and Jay recoiled with a yelp while Kai cursed at the sudden cold.

He snatched his hand back, unsettled by the obvious reaction.

“Something’s wrong!” Cole yelled over the wind. “We need to get in there!”

Lloyd shook his head. “It’s too dangerous!” He glanced at where Jay and Nya were huddling close to Kai, whose flames whipped wildly around his head. “We’ll freeze! We need to go back!”

Cole got a familiar look on his face. One that left Lloyd no choice but to step aside, because no matter how much the others deferred to him, Cole led them first.

He led them into the temple, and into the eye of a monstrous storm.

Lloyd squinted through the blistering snow and ice screaming around them. There, in the center of the room, was an odd structure – a strange boxy thing he didn’t remember from his last time here. Next to it, huddled in on itself and screaming along with the blizzard itself, was a figure.

Echo.

The nindroid suddenly looked up, and Lloyd felt a chill race up his spine at the glowing blue eyes. His voice sent a wave of dread through his body.

_“Leave this place,”_

It was layered and glitched, like hearing two ill-timed TVs at once.

Cole moved to deny him, but Echo whirled to the black ninja.

_“LEAVE US!”_


	17. Sleeper

Their head was spinning.

His head was spinning.

The ninja shouldn’t be here yet, he wasn’t – they weren’t – it wasn’t _time_ yet they couldn’t let them _see_ –

But they were here, they were awake – no, no _he_ was awake, and sharing his brain with someone – no that wasn’t right –

He squeezed their eyes shut – what was going on?! They clumsily dodged as Cole tried to grab his arm. Why were his feet coppery? Shouldn’t they be titanium? No – no they were the same as always what was wrong with them?

They couldn’t think; he stumbled around the unsteady earth and flames roaring around them.

Someone was shouting – screaming? His circuits were _burning._

Why couldn’t they leave them alone?!

~~~

The cold was intense; it nipped and burned at his fingertips, even with the careful flame walls he threw up in an attempt to corral the nindroid.

Echo…

As far as Kai could tell, the poor thing was falling apart before their eyes.

He was screeching one minute, then flinching away with a whimper the next. His attacks would send sheets of ice hurtling at them, only to fall to the ground in puffs of snow a second before impact. Kai couldn’t tell if he needed to dive in and grab him, or just get out of his way until he tired himself out.

If he tired himself out.

Kai caught eerie glowing eyes; he held their terrified gaze for a long second.

He knew that look.

_Help me._

“Echo!” He jumped forward with a yell, “Stop!”

“Do not touch us!” The nindroid jerked and jumped away from his outstretched hand. “No!”

Now the ice was sharper, colder – it didn’t hesitate as it raced towards him. Kai ducked out of its path – he hissed as a stray icicle sliced his shoulder. “Let us help you!”

Echo tripped over himself as he scrambled away. “N-n-no – no you c-c-can – no!” He clenched his head in his hands. “You can-n-not help us!”

Kai leapt at the nindroid, tackling him against the large structure in the middle of the temple floor. “Yes we can!” He yelled. “You have to let us!”

The two grappled against it, Kai latched onto Echo’s thrashed wrists. The nindroid sobbed and screamed against his grip. Kai clenched his teeth. “Quit moving!”

He jumped and wrapped strong arms around him, finally pinning him down and stopping the swirling ice around them. He fueled fire into his veins, felt them heating in a familiar pulse.

Echo went limp in his hold; his body sagged against the warmth of his arms. Kai sighed, his breath fogging into the frigid air and melting some of the ice below them. “There you go…”

He moved to let the nindroid stand up, when something caught his eye.

No.

_No._

His eyes had to be – he had to be missing something what was – no!

“Echo,” Kai rasped.

The nindroid shuddered under his hands.

“What –“

“We – I did not,”

Kai threw himself backwards with a wounded sound. “What did you do to him?!”

~~~

“Kai, what’s wrong?”

This was out of control. They had just come here to find Zane – now Kai was standing, practically steaming, yelling at the nindroid in front of them –

And Echo was just sliding to the ground against the ice form in the middle of the temple, head in his hands and snow swirling around his ankles.

“He – what did you do?!” Kai screeched. Lloyd stepped forward with a hand on Kai’s shoulder.

“Kai, what are you talking about, what’s wrong?”

Kai deflated under his hand, mirroring Echo’s drop to the ground. A pit of unease grew in Lloyd’s stomach – he’d never seen Kai pale like that. Not – not since…

He met the fire ninja’s eyes. Orange amber stared hollowly back up at him. Lloyd shook his head – it couldn’t be true. He whirled back up to stare at Echo.

“Echo – what happened?” The nindroid shook his head, curling in on himself. Lloyd cautiously stepped forward. “Echo, please, I need to know.”

He stopped short as Echo’s scattered voice filtered up at him.

“W-we j-just, I – I wanted to r-rest,” His voice was glitching with every word; it layered and folded over itself, each word sounded like it was being said twice over. “I-I wanted to l-leave us-s in p-peace,”

“Echo,” Lloyd said gently. “Echo, please, look at me.”

Echo picked up his head, and the dread in Lloyd’s stomach grew. His eyes had been yellow, with blue pupils back in the jungle – now one was a flickering yellow light, while the other was wholly taken over by a familiar blue glow.

Lloyd put his hands on Echo’s shoulders, sinking down to level with him. “What do you mean, you wanted to rest?”

The nindroid winced and held his head in a shaky hand. “I-I was not – Zane wanted to,”

“Zane? What did Zane want?”

“I j-just wanted,”

The green ninja snapped at the nindroid in front of him. “I need to know about Zane!”

Echo went quiet. “We wanted to rest,” he repeated.

The pit of dread spread to his fingertips. “Echo, what’s in the ice?”

Mix matched eyes looked up at him. “I am sorry,” He whispered.

Lloyd left him on the ground, eyes stuck on the ice sculpture in front of them. His mouth ran dry and metallic – his blood turned cold. A shiver wracked down his spine, unaffected by the cold.

The ice itself was solid; so cold and thick that it had frosted over to solid white. Delicate frost patterns crisscrossed over its surface, beautiful and smooth – stark geometric patterns that he’d never seen Zane make.

Anxiety wrapped around him as he realized Echo must have laid it.

He didn’t want to raise his hand to brush the frost away.

He wanted to turn and run, to pretend that they had never come here – to look for Zane in any of the sixteen realms.

Instead, he did brush it away.

He looked down into the ice, heart pounding in his chest.

And shuddered at the still face peacefully sleeping beneath the solid ice.


	18. Mediator

“Zane,” he breathed.

The nindroid looked more relaxed than he’d seen him in a long time. Permanent frown lines and stress on his face had faded into a peaceful, almost happy expression, free from the persistent worry that had plagued all of them for years now. He looked as peaceful and collected as he had the first day Lloyd had met him; the decades of the Never Realm erased and smoothed away.

It would have been comforting to see such calm, if it weren’t so unsettling a situation.

The ice – _casket, it was a casket,_ his brain shrieked – surrounding him was opaque white and blue, and fully frosted over. If he hadn’t been to the temple all those years ago, he would have assumed that it was a tall platform of some sort that was meant to be there.

But he did know.

It wasn’t supposed to be there – none of them were. Not him, not the others frozen in realization behind him, not the crying nindroid at his feet – and not the silent form beneath the solid ice in front of him.

“What,” his throat had run dry. “What happened to him?”

Echo quietly hiccupped. “W-we, I mean – he was tired. We – we thought, if we could just rest for a while,”

Lloyd knelt down beside the nindroid. He balled his hands on his lap before reaching out to steady him. “Echo, who is we? Who are you talking about?”

He let out a choked sound, boring his palms into his eyes. “I – we, I cannot,” he stuttered. “We c-cannot,” he gasped in a breath. “We is _me._ ” He ground out. He looked up at Lloyd, mis-matched eyes teary and wide. “W-we are b-b-both,”

Lloyd felt his limbs go numb as a jolt shot down his spine. “He’s with you, isn’t he?”

It was like the realization cut the strings holding Echo up; he leaned into Lloyd, shaking and exhausted. “It _hurts._ ” He whispered.

Lloyd carefully stood with him, guiding the nindroid’s shaky steps back towards the others. He looked up at them with measured concern. “We need to regroup,” he said. “Back to the lighthouse.”

Kai started to protest, and Lloyd cut him off with a shaking of his head. “We need to,” he looked back at the imposing ice sculpture in the center of the room. He sighed. “We need to rest for a minute.”

Echo trembled where his arm supported the nindroid.

W-we did not m-m-mean,” He choked. “We just, he was so t-tired, a-and,”

Lloyd gingerly set a comforting hand on his chest as they walked down the temple steps. “I know you didn’t want to hurt him.” He assured. “Or us,” he quietly added. “We should have seen how tired he was. You were just trying to help him.”

Zane’s voice out of Echo’s throat sent a chill down his spine.

“I just wanted to _rest._ ”


	19. Fighter

“How did this happen?” Cole murmured.

His hand trailed over Echo’s – Zane’s? – face. The nindroid was curled in a painful looking ball on Dr. Julien’s worn old mattress. He kept his arms wrapped tight around himself, and he kept muttering and whimpering to himself. No matter how Cole strained, he couldn’t make out the words – one minute, it sounded like an echoey child, the next, Zane’s layered tones would seep out. It sounded like gibberish.

It sounded painful.

The smell of burning seaweed and melting sand wafted in through the window – Kai must have still been pacing outside on the beach.

“I don’t know – I just,” Lloyd sighed and shook his head from where he sat on the floor. “How didn’t we see it?” He looked up at Cole with lost green eyes and threw his hands in the air. “He didn’t – you don’t just skip ahead to giving away your power core.”

Cole shook his head in agreement and lifted his hand to brush his hair out of his face. Echo shuddered at its absence, and he quickly replaced it, shushing the nindroid softly. “We need to fix this.”

Lloyd chewed his lip. “No argument here,” he replied. “But the only ones here who can do that are Jay and Nya, and I don’t think,” He let his voice drop off with a sigh. “Even if they were comfortable with it, I doubt he would.”

Cole shook his head. “Pix’ll be here in a few hours, we just have to wait.” He carefully ran a hand through Echo’s coppery hair. “Just a little longer,” he murmured. “Hold on buddy.”

~~~

“We’re awful.” Jay muttered.

Nya looked up at his voice. “We screwed up, that doesn’t make us bad people.” She kicked the sand. “Just…bad at decisions.”

“You’re joking, right?” Nya glared at Kai. He stepped away from the wall. “You kept an entire person a secret.” He shook his head. “This isn’t a secret mech suit, Nya, this,” he gestured into the air. “That’s a person! And not just any person – that’s the only family Zane has!”

“Had.” Jay mumbled.

Nya’s eyes widened and Kai’s voice dropped to murderous levels. “What?” Nya put out a hand to grab his shoulder. Kai jerked and shrugged it off.

Jay’s eyes met Kai’s before flitting away. “You saw him Kai. He’s,” Jay sucked in a breath. “He’s not – here. Anymore.”

He fidgeted with his hands. “We got here too late.”

Kai glared at him, smoke curling from the corners of his mouth. “He’s not dead,” he growled. “He’s not gone.” His hands curled into fists at his sides.

“We don’t know that,” Jay murmured. “If he didn’t shutdown properly –“ He continued, heedless of Kai’s steaming hair and blazing eyes.

“Shut up!”

“-if someone surprised him, interrupted his backup,” Jay looked up with dull blue eyes. Kai yanked him to his feet by his collar, and Jay stared at him in silent shock.

“Say one more word, Walker.” Kai growled. “I dare you.”

Nya watched with wide eyes as her brother sneered into the face of her boyfriend. 

“Why are you so eager for him to be gone?” Kai hissed.

Nya gasped in shock and snapped at him. “That is not what he meant and you know it!”

Kai’s eyes flitted towards her before settling on Jay’s face. “Then what else could it be?” He slammed Jay against the lighthouse wall. “Huh?”

“I-I don’t want him dead, Kai!”

“You could have fooled me!”

Jay’s signature chatter was nowhere to be seen; Nya watched him open and close his mouth with stuttered and halted sounds. “Kai, put him down,” She reached forward to separate the two, and Kai spat sparks.

“He’s not hiding behind you, Nya!” Kai’s voice shook and smoke curled from his mouth. “He’s too much of a coward to even bring up our best friend’s last family, and now he’s hoping that Zane’s dead so he doesn’t have to deal with his stupid decisions!”

“That’s not it,” Jay quietly protested. “I just,”

“You. Just. What?” Kai growled.

“I,” Jay’s face fell. “I don’t,”

“Arguing won’t fix Zane, Kai!” Nya snapped.

Kai let out a yell.

His arm swung through the air.

A sharp crack sounded, and Jay’s face whipped to the side as Nya shouted.

Jay dropped to the ground with a hand held up to his eye; Kai glared down at him with a clenched jaw and a closed fist. Nya stared in shock at her brother. “Kai!”

Jay stared up at him wide eyed.

All three looked to the sky as familiar engines roared overhead. The Samurai X Mech slowed to a stop and landed farther down the beach. Kai’s eyes darted between Jay and Nya before he stepped back with a huff.

“I’m going to go help Pixal.” He growled. “You two stay here for all I care – I’m going to help Zane.” He paused. “And Echo.”

Nya hesitated before kneeling down to look at Jay’s eye. “You okay?” She murmured.

Jay slowly lowered his hand from his left eye. Nya hissed and fished a cold pack out of her pockets. Purple and blue bruising blossomed across his eye and the curve of his cheek. He silently let her look at the black eye, hardly flinching when she put the cold pack on his face.

“I don’t want him to be gone.” Jay muttered.

“I know.”

“I should have told him.”

Nya paused. “We both made choices, Jay.” She sighed. “Just because Kai gets upset at the wrong person doesn’t mean it’s all your fault.”

Tears welled up in his eyes. “What if we’re too late?” He rasped. “What if he really is gone?”

“He isn’t – he’s still there, I know it.” Nya assured.

Jay shook his head. “But we don’t know,” he protested. “And – and he found Echo by himself. He – he’ll know we kept it from him.” His voice was small and scratchy and scared. “What if the last thing he thought about was how we hid it?”


	20. Healer

Kai stood stoically as the mech landed, glaring despite the swirling sand and grit flying up from its thrusters. The engine was still whirring to a stop when Pixal flipped out and landed curtly in front of him. Silver skin and platinum hair gleamed in the sunlight; her heavy metal feet sank into the sand; swords clanked against the armor at her side.

“Where is he?”

When they burst into the lighthouse, his anger melted away in favor of pity.

Zane – Echo – flinched at the sound of the door with a cry. Pixal winced and rushed over to him, running a hand over his forehead and shushing him quietly. “What happened?” She murmured.

Lloyd shook his head. “We think Zane transplanted his core.” The mechanical samurai looked up at him in alarmed concern. Lloyd stubbornly continued. “Zane…Zane’s body is still in the temple.” He explained. “But there’s another issue…it’s not like when you were in his head, this is different.”

“They have become twined.” Pixal muttered. 

“Twined?”

“My father warned me about it, back when we first returned from Chen’s island.” She explained. “He wanted Zane and I to know the risks, so that we could mitigate them until I could build my body.” Lloyd nodded in understanding as she continued her gentle inventory of Echo. “Much like how possession leaves its mark on organic souls, two mechanical souls cannot survive for long without proper barriers. We must separate them quickly if we want them separated at all.”

Lloyd paled at the comparison; he had spent weeks recovering from Morro’s control. “We’ll do whatever you need.” He assured. “Whatever it takes to – to untwine them.”

Pixal nodded and took in a breath. “We will need to create a new core for,” her voice trailed off as she turned again to the shuddering nindroid in front of her.

“Echo,” Cole quietly provided. “His name is Echo.”

“Echo.” Pixal repeated. “We will need a new core for Echo before we do anything else.” She backed away from him, leaving Cole to continue anchoring Echo. “I have supplies on the mech. We will begin immediately in Dr. Julien’s workshop.”

Pixal was every bit her father’s daughter; however proficient she had become in combat and reconnaissance, she was literally built for mechanics and engineering. She’d learned the specifications of Zane’s core years ago, and within hours had a fresh core lying pristinely on Dr. Julien’s old worktable. It quietly pulsed with a warm yellow glow as she finally set her tools down with a sigh.

“It is ready.”

She stared quietly at the quiet nindroid on the bed. Despite herself, dread pooled in her gut. It was easy to build a new core; if what Cole and the others had said was true, then the hard part was yet to come.

“Echo?”

They jolted at her gentle voice. “P-Pix-AL?”

She gave a strained smile. “You know my name. You two are very tightly twined now, are you not?”

They nodded. “We – I do n-not,”

She shushed him. “It is alright,” she assured. “I am going to untwine you.”

“H-h-how?”

Pixal shifted guiltily. “It will not be pleasant, I am afraid.”

Echo winced against the biting chill of Zane in his head; the moments he wasn’t…twined…were painfully brief seconds of clarity.

“D-do it, p-p-please,”

She gently pressed her forehead to his with a dull metallic thunk.

“As you wish.”

~~~

They tried to keep their breathing steady as she plugged in the last cable. Despite themselves, frost spiked and curled around the armrests at their fingertips.

Pixal dusted away the frost without a word. “Are you alright?”

They nodded curtly. “H-how long?”

She narrowed her eyes guiltily. “I cannot say until I have begun.” She admitted. “I will make it as quick as I can.”

They leaned into her. “We t-t-trust you,” they breathed.

She smiled tensely. At least someone did.  
~~~  
Echo jerked as she moved another key file. “I know, I apologize,” She soothed. “Just breathe through it.”  
~~~  
She hit the delete key, and they whined. “You are doing so well, we are so close to being done,” she assured.  
~~~  
Another transferred file, another muffled cry and a flash of frost at his fingertips.  
~~~  
“Just a restart,” She breathed. “Just a restart, and we are finished.” Her hand hovered over the enter key. “Are you ready?”

Echo didn’t have the energy to respond out loud. All she received was a nod.

“It will be a long process. We will be here when you wake.”

Another nod; his eyes begged her to “just do it”.

“I will see you both soon,” she assured. She hit the key, and his form sagged in the chair with a faint whir as his fans slowed.  
~~~

“Is it done? Are they okay?” Cole was on his feet the moment Pixal trudged out of the workshop. “Did everything go alright?”

She sank into a chair at the table. “Yes,” she said. “It is done.” Her shoulders sagged; normally maintained hair curled around her face in out of place whorls.

She gently set a glowing blue core – Zane’s core – on the table, next to a drive. It sat heavy on the old wood with a metallic clank.

“He is there.” She explained. “We just…” she sighed. “We just need to retrieve him from the temple, and I can revive him.”

Cole studied the core. “Is he…awake?”

“No.” She shook her head. “To him, he is merely sleeping. He won’t wake until he is back in his body.”

“And Echo?” Lloyd asked. “How is he?”

Pixal sighed and held her arms close. “He is fine. Sleeping, now – repartitioning his processor now that Zane is out of the way.”

They sat in silence for a moment. Without Echo’s strained whimpers filling the space, the lighthouse’s imposing quiet and heavy air weighed on all of them.

He’d been in pain. They’d both been in tremendous pain. Untwining them had taken even longer than she’d feared, and it had been nearly too late.

Hopefully Zane and Echo would both wake without incident.


End file.
